


Shiro's revelation

by wertdifferenz



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Pre Relationship, Set in Season 1, pre kerberos part, short mention of other characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2019-01-16 05:29:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12336405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wertdifferenz/pseuds/wertdifferenz
Summary: Everyone thinks that Shiro was Lance's bisexuel revelation, but in reality, it was the other way around.Or: It took Shiro four incidents to finally realize, that he was in fact not completly straight.Living in space with four other human, one of them his brother and the other a little girl might have been a factor to Shiro’s confusion. Of course neither Keith nor Pidge were the reason for his small crisis. Gosh, not even Hunk was.It started way before Shiro realized it. First time wasn’t even in the dirty dessert shack right after his crash landing on earth. No, it was almost two years earlier!





	Shiro's revelation

**Author's Note:**

> Hello people who found these notes. 
> 
> There is a certain term for the origin of this story: procrastination. I should be working on other stuff, but chose to write this instead. Oh, well.
> 
> English is still not my first language, so please bear with any mistakes. It is also really late when I'm uploading this and I'm my tired brain is not able to beta-read anymore.
> 
> In the story, I imagined Shiro to be about 5 years older than Lance, but I don't want to pressure you into anything. Have fun reading!

Living in space with four other human, one of them his brother and the other a little girl might have been a factor to Shiro’s confusion. Of course neither Keith nor Pidge were the reason for his small crisis. Gosh, not even Hunk was. 

It started way before Shiro realized it. First time wasn’t even in the dirty dessert shack right after his crash landing on earth. No, it was almost two years earlier!

Shiro received the info that he was going to substitute Mr. Green for his 8 a.m. cargo pilot class way too early in the morning. He was… well, saying he happy about it would be a lie. He had to change up his morning routine, cancel breakfast with Matt and teach a bunch of unmotivated teenagers who would rather be sleeping about how to correctly use the full automatic docking mode of the cargo ships. Wow, great way to start the day.

He entered the classroom dead on time and introduced himself as the substitute teacher. Thirty heads shot up at the mention of his name and one student even dared to ask him if he was the “real Takashi Shirogane”. He ignored him. 

Being semi-famous on the campus as the pilot of the future Kerberos mission had his pros and cons. Pros were definitely being able to cut every queue in school, the cafeteria queues, the bathroom queues, the vending machine queues. Every. Single. One. And Shiro would be dammed if he didn’t exploit this on a daily basis. He did, but mostly to compensate the multiple cons. For example substituting a stupid teacher for a stupid 8 a.m. class full of students who asked him stupid questions.

Still, as the dutiful teacher he tried to play, Shiro went through the power point charts, explaining every little detail about the automatic docking mode that just needed the simple push of a button to be activated. Gosh, this lesson could be over in two minutes instead of ninety. He was in full explanation mode when he heard some whispering at the back of the class. He stopped mid-sentence to see who disturbed the lesson. In the back of the class, he saw a young boy whispering something to a girl. 

“Mind telling us what’s so important to disturb my class right now?”

Thirty heads shot up, twenty-eight turning around to loot at the culprit. The girl started to blush furiously and ducked her head down to make herself smaller. It didn’t work. The boy’s eyes widened slightly; the brunet opened his mouth a little bit. Shiro could see his brain rattling for an answer.

“Uhm…” The boy tried. He looked a little bit overwhelmed.

“Your name?”

“McClain, sir. Lance McClain.”

“So, Mr. McClain. Is flirting with your classmate more important than paying attention to you lesson?” Gosh, even Shiro had to admit that he sounded like a dick. He sounded like Iverson. But he had to teach these students about this stupid button and really didn’t want to be disturbed. It was disrespectful towards Shiro and the boy’s classmates.

“Sir, I’m sorry, but I wasn’t flirting.”

“Then what were you doing.” 

“I was just explaining where to find the docking button.”

“Don’t you know how a cockpit looks from the inside?” Shiro asked annoyed. 

“We do, sir. But only from pictures. And Mr. Green showed us outdated charts where the button was not installed yet. So she was confused where to find it.”

Shiro raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t seen a cockpit from the inside?”

“Uhm… no, sir.” Shiro looked around. Twenty-nine shaking head confirmed the story of their classmate. Well, that was a major setback. No wonder they made a two minute lesson to a ninety minute one. Shiro could explain all day where to find the button if no one had any reference to his explanation. He probably only confused the poor students even more with his lecture.

“Uh, Mr. Shirogane?” McClain spoke up again. Shiro nodded at him to continue. “Do you maybe have access to newer pictures for us? That would make it a lot easier for us to understand.” Shiro thought about it.

“Let me check something.” He went to the teacher computer and logged himself in. Instead of going to the picture archive of the Garrison, he accessed the timetable of the flight simulators. Since it was the first class of the morning, and flight simulations usually started after 10 a.m., all simulators were free. Shiro looked back at the class, thirty curious pairs of eyes watching him. 

If he was lucky, he could get all students into a simulator, show them the layout of an actual cockpit and be back before class ended without being discovered. And even if the higher ups found out about his little expedition, what could they do? Take his substitute teacher status away? Please, do it!

Shiro rose from his chair, which immediately got him the attention of the whole class. 

“Okay guys, grab your notebooks and a pen. We will go to a simulator now.”

Nobody moved. They just sat there and looked incredulously at Shiro. Well, he couldn’t blame them. That was probably the most exciting thing they would do in Mr. Greens morning class for the entire semester. He simply crooked an eyebrow, and well, if that didn’t get the whole class started. 

One minute later, thirty teenagers stood lined up at the door, ready to be escorted to the simulator. 

Shiro had to remind them just once to stay quiet in the hallways. He turned around a few times while walking, to check if everybody was still there. He saw the brunet boy tagging behind, whispering something to a classmate. From his concentrated look, Shiro could tell that he was explaining again. 

As they reached the simulator, Shiro divided the class in groups of ten. More people didn’t fit in the small space of the cockpit, and he didn’t really want to explain the same thing more than three times. The brunet was in the last group, and he soaked up anything he could see. Whenever Shiro spoke, blue eyes were glued to his lips. Shiro was a fighter pilot, but he got cargo pilot lessons for the Kerberos mission, and eagerly shared anything that could be important to the students. 

When the last group finished the cockpit tour, they returned to the classroom and Shiro answered syllabus related questions till the end of the lesson. When Shiro dismissed the class, some students stayed behind to thank him for all the information. As he saw the brunet leave the room with some classmates, Shiro suddenly felt really bad for calling him out earlier. 

“McClain?” The brunet turned around and raised a questioning eyebrow at Shiro.

“Yes, sir?”

“Mind staying for a minute. I’d like to talk.”

“Uhm, sure.” Lance’s friends silently waved him goodbye and left.

Shiro quickly dismissed the remaining students. When they were alone, Shiro was suddenly at loss of words. He scratched his head as the brunet approached him. Standing only a few feet away, Shiro could see the other had pretty eyes. Like, _really_ pretty eyes. Gorgeous, ocean blue gems looked at Shiro, waiting for his superior to talk. 

“Sir?” He asked hesitantly.

“Uh, yeah. Uhm, I wanted to apologize for calling you out earlier. I shouldn’t have assumed right away that you were flirting with this girl.”

“Oh, uhm. Thank you?”

“I know I sounded like a dick.”

Lance snorted. “Yeah, like Iverson.” His hands suddenly snapped up to his mouth and his eyes widened in shock. He looked at Shiro. “ _Mierda!_ Sorry sir! I-I didn’t mean to…” 

Shiro’s laughter interrupted the young boy. “Don’t worry about it. Actually, I thought the exact same thing.” 

Lance shoulders slumped down and he sighed relieved. “I’m still sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to compare you to Iverson.” He crooked his head slightly, leaving Shiro a nice view on the delicate curve of the brunet’s neck. “You’re a really good teacher, Mr. Shirogane. This lesson helped the whole class with future studies.” The boy added with a shy smile.

“Uhm, thank you.” Shiro had to fight down a blush at those words. He never got a compliment for his teaching. Usually he just stuck to the syllabus; today was the first exception he ever made. And he was really glad he did, because that gave him the chance to take another look at the boy in front of him. Like almost every student, he looked at Shiro with admiration, but there was something more, something deeper Shiro couldn’t quite grasp. 

An awkward silence stretched between them. The brunet shifted slightly and fidgeted with his hands. “Uhm, sir. I don’t want to be rude, but I have to get to my next class.”

Shiro’s eyes snapped to the digital clock above the door. It was almost time for the next bell, and he promised to meet with Matt and Mr. Holt for a meeting at 10. He had seven minutes left. 

“Yeah, okay. I have to hurry, too. Thank you for staying behind. Don’t be late for your next class.” Shiro internally winced at those words. Gosh, he sounded like a dad. The brunet chuckled. He probably had the same thought. 

With a cheery smile he bid his teacher goodbye and left. Shiro hastily packed his bag, exited the classroom and locked it behind him. As he hurried to his meeting, he couldn’t forget the pretty ocean blue eyes. They haunted him for quite some time.

 

***

 

The second time would be in the dirty desert shack. Shiro woke up with a really bad headache, a white forelock, and a new arm. He was shocked of the new attachment, and he didn’t really have time to get used to it between being rescued from aliens, then being rescued from humans and waking up in the middle of nowhere next to your adopted brother. He wasn’t the only one who had to warm up to his new arm. Keith hardly looked at it; Matt’s clone and the big guy ogled it wary. Only Lance touched it without hesitation. He seemed more surprised that Shiro remembered his name, even though Shiro himself had no idea where they had met before. 

Even with the upcoming arrival of hostile aliens in the back of his mind, Shiro found some time to look at the pretty ocean blue gems. He had a feeling that he knew them, that they meant something to him, but his brain felt like scrambled eggs and he just couldn’t remember. 

The next few hours were a mess. After finding the Blue Lion and flying through a wormhole to a weird castle, waking up a princess, finding the other four lions, finding out the new arm was also a weapon, and fighting a Galra ship, he could hardly catch his breath. Only in the evening, when he finally laid in the bed of his assigned room, he got time to review the whole day. He starred at the metal ceiling and tried to think what to do next, what was good for the team. But all he could really think about were sapphire eyes and brown skin. 

The way Lance looked at him, admiration in his gaze, but also something else. The way his whole face lit up when Shiro assigned him to help Hunk find the Yellow Lion. The way his mood dropped and he got mad when Shiro scolded him for flirting with the princess. Shiro immediately felt bad, but the way Lance used pick up lines on her made him kind of angry and hot inside, but the bad kind of hot, like he would blew up any moment. From the few hours together he learned that Lance was a flirt. But it still annoyed him when he used that stupid pick up lines. 

Shiro’s body was still buzzing from the adrenalin and his mind was a mess. He decided to get up and check out the training room the princess had mentioned to blow off some steam. Training always helped him clear his head, and maybe he could think of something, anything that would help them survive this intergalactic war. The other paladins were teenagers, not soldiers. And even Shiro himself didn’t want to fight anymore. Sure, his memories were a mess, but he clearly remembered the arena, the fights, the killing.

He thought of the other paladins. Keith had no problem fighting; they had trained together at the Garrison before. Matt’s sister seemed determined to do anything that would help her find her family. The big guy, Hunk, seemed a bit reluctant to use violence, but that didn’t stop him destroying the ion canon or crashing those fighter jets under Yellow’s belly. He felt safe inside his Lion. 

His mind wandered to the Blue Paladin. Lance seemed to be a good shooter, and a mediocre pilot. He managed to pilot his Lion with little trouble, and completed his mission without a complaint. His flirtatious personality fit with his casual work attitude, but he still got the job done. He just hoped that the boy’s cheerfulness would survive this war.

 

***

 

Third time was only a few days later, when the castle got attacked by Sendak. His gut hat twisted when they found Lance laying half dead on the floor. The knot in his stomach had only tightened when they had realized that Lance had saved Coran’s life by shielding him from the explosion with his body. 

Shiro had got to know a new side of Lance this night. The boy didn’t hesitate to do anything to help and protect the people around him. Shiro couldn’t quite shake off the feeling of déjà vu from this revelation, but it was drowned by the worry about his team mate. 

When the others split up to help the Arusians and get a new crystal, he was glad he could stay with Lance. He got a better look at him as Shiro cradled him in his arms. His skin was soiled and his soft hair messy; he had small cuts on his face and his whole body flinched as Shiro touched his rips. But even beat up like this, he still looked gorgeous. The Black Paladin protectively pulled the young boy closer.

As much as it hurt Shiro to hear the pained breaths of the other as he moved him, they couldn’t stay on the shattered bridge. He carefully lifted Lance up and over his shoulder. With small steps he made his way to the med bay. Lance breath had evened out, but it was too shallow for Shiro’s liking. 

You know the rest of the story, Sendak was defeated and Lance was saved, thanks to his own effort to waking up from a coma and shooting the enemy. Lance had to stay in the healing pod for three days, and everyone took turns on watching him. Everyone but Shiro, he didn’t leave Lance’s side the whole time.

Looking back, Shiro’s feelings towards the other were obviously deeper than the ones for his other teammates. Why did nobody tell him?

 

***

 

It took four incidents for Shiro to finally realize it.

There were small occasions in between, but those didn’t really matter. I mean, tight body suits and unavoidable close physical contact while training sometimes did strange things to grown men groins, right? So those don’t count.

It wasn’t even a big event. Well, for Shiro it was, but any other person would just take it at another night at the castle. 

It was late. Shiro was tired. They had to form Voltron in the morning, and after an exhausting fight, the princess just couldn’t let it go and made them train in the afternoon, too. The whole team was already sleeping, but like every night, Shiro’s body ached for a rest but his mind just wouldn’t shut up. So he wandered the castle in desperate need of distraction. He found it sitting on the floor in the observation room, looking at foreign constellations and sighing deeply. 

Lance didn’t seem to notice Shiro’s arrival. The Black Paladin took good look at the boy. He looked so sad. And lonely. Shiro didn’t want to disturb the other, but he also couldn’t just leave him be like that. Those ocean blue gems should never look so full of sorrow. 

He seated himself next to Lance. The other was startled by Shiro’s sudden appearance. He quickly straightened up and put a lazy smile on his face; a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“What’s up, Shiro? Couldn’t sleep?”

Shiro hummed affirmative. “Yeah, still thinking about the fight this morning. And you?”

Lance’s shoulders slumped a bit down. His fake smile faltered, but didn’t vanish completely, as if it was glued to his face. As if he was used to smiling all the time, even when he was sad. “I’m just not tired.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Shiro laughed disbelievingly. “Even I am tired after today.” 

Lance pulled his legs to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. He leaned a little forward and rested his chin on his knees. He looked vulnerable like this and Shiro couldn’t help but scoot a bit closer. 

“It’s just… my body is tired, but when I go to sleep I’ll dream of my family, and I really can’t endure this right now.” 

“You’re homesick.” Shiro concluded. Lance winced at his words and he hid his face between his arms. 

“Gosh, that is so stupid. I know we have bigger problems than my stupid homesickness, and I should just get over it and go to bed and get some rest so I don’t drag the team down even more tomorrow. I’m so-“

“Don’t say you’re sorry.” Shiro interrupted him. Lance’s head shot up and his eyes widened comically. Shiro would have laughed at this sight, if it hadn’t been for the small tears appearing in the corner of Lance’s eyes. Wow, great way to comfort a teammate, Shirogane. Just make him cry. 

“You don’t have to feel sorry for being homesick, Lance.” He added quickly. “Everyone feels homesick, even I do.”

Lance huffed. “Yeah, but you don’t drag the team down with it.” 

“You’re not dragging the team down, Lance.” 

Lance laid his head back on his knees, still facing the other. “Shiro, you don’t have to play it down. I know I’m the weakest link in the team. And I know that I annoy everyone with my personality, especially you.”

“That’s not true”. It wasn’t true. But Shiro couldn’t think of anything else. His silence didn’t make it better though. It felt like validating Lance’s opinion, and he couldn’t let that stand. He just didn’t know the right thing to say, so he just spit the first thing out that came to his mind.

“Why do flirt with every alien girl you meet?”

Lance huffed again. “I would also flirt with alien boys if we ever meet some hot ones.” 

Well, if that wasn’t some interesting information for Shiro. But he had a mission here, so focus.

“That doesn’t explain the flirting.”

“I don’t really have an answer for that, Shiro. Ask me something else.”

“Okay, so what’s this whole rivalry thing with Keith about?”

Lance didn’t answer at first. He only raised an eyebrow, asking Shiro silently if he was serious. Shiro nodded for him to continue. 

“When I moved from cargo pilot class to fighter class, it was only thanks to Keith dropping out, and Iverson reminded me and the whole class of that, every single day. When you get compared to someone all the time, it’s hard not to start a rivalry about it, even if it’s just one sided.”

Shiro hummed. That actually made sense. But wait… “You were a cargo pilot?” 

Shiro expected a lot of things, but not the little smile Lance gave him. “Yeah, before the Kerberos mission. You even came to my class on day as a substitute teacher. But I guess you don’t remember that, right?”

“No, I don’t. The time before Kerberos is still a mess.” 

“Too bad. You were a really good teacher, Shiro. Your lesson helped us a lot.” And that made something in Shiro’s head click. His head started to thrum a little as he regained a memory. A shy smile, brown skin, and gorgeous, ocean blue eyes. The same cute face of the boy sitting next to him. 

“Shiro, are you okay?” He hadn’t realized that he had closed his eyes and bent slightly forward from the pain in his head or that the brunet had moved and was sitting right in front of him, face only a few inches away. Shiro blushed slightly at the sudden closeness, but the other didn’t seem realize. He didn’t move as well as he waited for an answer. 

“Uhm, yeah, I’m fine. I just remembered something. Your class, actually. We went to the simulator, right?” He was greeted with a blinding smile. Lance whole face brightened up by Shiro’s words.

“Yes! You took us there! And you even explained us everything in the cockpit. Man, Shiro, you really saved our asses back then!” 

Shiro couldn’t hide a chuckle. Lance went on, enthusiastically explaining how Shiro had ‘saved the day, no, the semester’ by taking the class to the simulator. In the mean time, Shiro tried to organize the new memories. The Lance he got to know in that classroom didn’t fit the image the Blue Paladin tried to uphold at all. They were like two different people. The only thing that fit was their need to help others. 

As Lance calmed down and returned to his original seat next to Shiro, a comfortable silence embraced them. Lance was lost in thoughts again, but a small smile was still tugging at his lips. The previous outburst of the brunet left Shiro with a question.

“You didn’t really change so much, right? The shy, curious boy who always helped his friends is still there.” Lance didn’t look at him, he just shrugged. “Why do you hide yourself behind pick up lines and bickering?”

“I... I don’t know…” He sheepishly looked at Shiro. “Do you hate it?” A frown replaced the smile from before and his voice sounded sad, almost a little heartbroken.

Shiro didn’t like that he made the other sound like that. Of course he didn’t hate it. But he didn’t like it either. He was just confused by the other. “I don’t despise it. But you don’t have to fake it in front of the team. You can simply be yourself with us.”

“I don’t know if you would like my old me. It didn’t really fit into the fighter class.” Lance talked of Shiro, not the whole team. The Black Paladin noticed that much, but didn’t comment on it.

“We’re not at the Garrison anymore, Lance. And Keith’s personality is enough fighter class for the whole team. Also, I came to know you in cargo class, and I can tell you that I like this Lance.”

Lance blushed slightly. “I… I’ll think about it.”

Shiro smiled gently at him and ruffled Lance’s hair. “That’s all I’m asking for.” Man, Lance’s hair was really soft. It felt like silk between his fingers. Shiro might have rested his hand a little bit longer than appropriate on the brunets head, but neither said a word when he hastily pulled his arm away again. 

A yawn from the younger interrupted Shiro’s thoughts about silk-like hair. He stood up and offered his right hand to Lance, who took it without hesitation. They walked back in silence and reached the Blue Paladin’s room first. Before entering, Lance turned around and offered Shiro the most heartwarming smile he had ever received. 

“Thank you for the talk.”

Shiro’s brain stopped, and a few seconds passed before he could manage to stutter out an answer. “Y-yeah. No problem. Goodnight, Lance.”

“Goodnight, Shiro.” With a sleepy smile, Lance vanished behind the door and left a flustered Black Paladin behind. Shiro went to bed, but sleep was even farther away than before.

 

That night, Shiro had two revelations: 

First, he was not as straight as he thought he was. 

And second, he had fallen for a boy with soft brown hair and pretty ocean blue eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this story! 
> 
> I'd be happy to hear your thoughts or criticism. I have still trouble writing a complete story, so this might seem a bit... incompleted.
> 
> Last but not least, unnecessary information:  
> \- Lance doesn’t hate the cargo pilot class, because he really liked his classmates and the atmosphere there.  
> \- Lance knew that he is bi since he was 12.  
> \- Shiro didn’t sleep after his revelation.  
> \- Lance has a crush on Shiro (duh).  
> \- Lance drops the rivalry after this night, and Keith is really grateful for that. The bickering doesn’t stop though.  
> \- I had “Let it go” stuck in my head for the rest of the evening because those three words in the story.


End file.
